Online presence of biomedical researchers: Where to maintain a profile?

Dear Editor,

“The content you have in your warehouse should be kept in a showroom to sell it” was a statement of my mentor while he was explaining why we need to attend a conference. The statement is apt for scientific publications too. The art of promotion should be adopted by the researcher to make an impact of their articles in the overall progress of science. Sharing and promoting research help discoveries to reach to peers and to even those outside the discipline. An article shared on social media reaches the common people and the media. A higher online presence increases the chances of a higher number of citations of an article that eventually increases the impact factor of a journal. Among the various facets of science promotion, maintaining the online presence of an author is an important aspect.[1] This allows wider dissemination of the articles among peers, facilitates ease of communication among researchers, and increases the credibility of the researcher. In this letter, we briefly describe where an author may open an online profile without paying any fees.

Table 1 shows the names, websites, and brief details of the scientific communities that provide facilities to create online profiles.[12] This list was prepared with extensive online search and the personal experience of the authors. However, we do not claim it to be comprehensive. The links to the websites can be used to create an author’s profile. We checked all of them and found them to be free of charge. However, some add-on features may be chargeable (i.e., academia charges fees for a personal website of the author).

Table 1

Title and web links where researchers open their profiles

Creation	Title	Website	Brief functions
Can create	Academia	https://www.academia.edu/	Hosts all research work. Many features need subscription fees.
	Figshare	https://figshare.com/	Free online repository where research materials can be stored. It provides DOI to every uploaded material.
	Google Scholar	https://scholar.google.com/	Shows publications, citations, h-index, and i10-index of authors. An institutional email id is required to fully activate the account.
	ImpactStory	https://profiles.impactstory.org	Lists all papers and shows impact of the research in online channels like Wikipedia, Facebook, etc.
	Loop	https://loop.frontiersin.org/	Lists publications and citations; helps in creating networks.
	Microsoft Academic	https://academic.microsoft.com/	Lists all the publications, citations, conferences, journals, institutions, and repository.
	ORCiD	https://orcid.org/	Helps add all papers, education, experience, employment, and peer-review reports in a single public profile. Majority of the journals want the ORCiD of the authors.
	Publons	https://publons.com/	All peer reviews (pre-publication [verified] and post publication) can be stored along with editorial works. Lists all the journals reviewed or edited. The publication and citations are also shown. Researcher ID has been merged with Publons.
	Researchgate	https://www.researchgate.net/	Store all the research work and shares it with peers, connect with researchers, ask questions, and even search jobs. Needs at least one published article (or invitation) or institutional email ID for account creation.
	Science open	https://www.scienceopen.com/	All papers sorted by content type, collection, publisher, journal, etc., along with co-authors’ count and citations. The visibility of a paper can be increased by adding summary, thumbnail, additional keywords, and data.
	Sci Profiles	https://sciprofiles.com	Helps list publications, conferences, and build networks.
Auto created	ResearcherID	https://www.researcherid.com/	No option to create it individually. Creating Publons account and importing Web of Sciences publication would generate the ID.
	Scopus author ID	https://www.scopus.com/freelookup/form/author.uri	Auto-generated if the article is indexed in Scopus. Lists all the Scopus-indexed articles and citations and provide option to edit any errors in auto entry

ORCiD: Open Researcher and Contributor ID

Once the profile is created, it looks attractive if a profile photo is added. The account should be monitored frequently and should contain all the updated information about the publication, conferences, and peer-review or editorial records. A practical tip is to fix a day in a week or fortnight to update all the profiles, if it is not auto-updated.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.